won the game<\/a> with a rocket into deep center field. Afterward, Rivera approached Torre and said, \u201cLet\u2019s not do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThe one thing about Mariano,\u201d Torre said, \u201cis when he\u2019s out on the mound, he doesn\u2019t think anybody can hit him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Except Mart\u00ednez, despite his insistence that Rivera threw the best cutter he ever saw. The problem for Rivera, however, was that his cutter, the pitch that turned hundreds of bats into sawdust and dominated pretty much everybody, played directly into Mart\u00ednez\u2019s strengths.<\/p>\n
To right-handed hitters like Mart\u00ednez, Rivera\u2019s cutter darted to the outside part of the plate, taking what looked on television like a sharp left turn. Mart\u00ednez lived for pitches away, frequently looking to drive balls up the middle or to the opposite field, allowing him to neutralize Rivera\u2019s primary weapon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis ball would cut away from you, so you could not try to pull it,\u201d Mart\u00ednez said. \u201cYou have to follow that pitch and go in that direction. I would tell myself that for a pitcher like Mariano, you just can\u2019t over-swing.\u201d<\/p>\n
***************<\/p>\n
In the ninth inning of Game 1 of the ALCS in 2001, Mart\u00ednez stepped up to the plate against Rivera. Heading into the at-bat, Mart\u00ednez was 10-for-13 against him. But this time, Rivera had something special he was saving for his toughest foe: a sinker, a fastball that resembled a cutter out of his hand, but broke in to righty hitters instead of away. Mart\u00ednez swung and got jammed, fisting a weak ground ball to first base, ending the game and leaving him with nothing besides the handle of his bat.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez was stunned. He had never seen Rivera throw that pitch and didn\u2019t realize he had it in his arsenal. From that point on, Mart\u00ednez went 1-for-5 against Rivera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat pitch became an incredible lethal weapon for Mariano,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cBut it was started to defend against Edgar Mart\u00ednez\u2019s crazy hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n
****************<\/p>\n
Rivera\u2019s journey was preordained. He has the career record for saves with 652, to go along with his 2.21 ERA. He is regarded as arguably the best clutch performer ever, putting up an absurd 0.70 ERA in the playoffs, helping to power the Yankees to five championships in a 14-season span.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Great! No one more deserving. And a funny coincidence! Rivera was elected into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday by the voting members of the Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America. He is the first player in history to be voted in unanimously, a remarkable achievement that has long been seen as an impossibility. As Rivera […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7662,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions\/7662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}